Today, even with the couples who are completely devoted to one another, it seems like a common problem where the conversations we used to have before we went to bed are replaced with silent scrolling on our phone for what’s happening on social media.
Our smartphones are mini-computers, there’s no doubt about that. With them being within reach 24/7, it’s no wonder our social lives have been reduced to a small rectangle that shines in our hands. It happens so quickly, we don’t really realize how it hurts our relationships.
Lack of Mindfulness.
Smartphones are a welcome distraction when you are on the bus, subway, or even in line at the grocery store. It demands our attention and we give it ever so willingly. The problem is, we are so immersed in what’s going on online, we don’t take into consideration our surroundings and the people we are with.
We often live our lives through our phones—why pay money to see that concert when you’re going to watch it through your phone anyway?
Loss of Communication
Communication is already a problem for many couples, so it’s no surprise that when we throw smartphones into the mix, that communication suffers even more. Intimacy is a thing of the past, as our noses are glued our screens and we become oblivious to our partner. Instead of sending a romantic letter to someone about how we miss them and can’t wait to see them, we simply send them a text or facetime with them. Of course, when it comes to how our lives are perceived to others, we jump to the chance to share our most intimate details via the very thing that keeps us from enjoying our relationship—social media.
People want to appear to others that they are blissfully in love and happy, when instead of posting for the world to see, you should be working to make it a reality with your partner.
Destabilization of Your Relationship
In order to maintain a stable relationship, there has to be an equal amounts of give and take. We think we are giving our all, but in truth we are giving much less of ourselves, especially when we are strapped to our smartphones at any given minute.
In truth, our phones have a way of turning us into selfish people who doesn’t care about the world we are living in at this moment, but rather the digital world that we want to be part of. We place too much importance on what our followers think, rather than what our significant other thinks. This only perpetuates a vicious cycle that continues to grow the more we involve ourselves with the digital world because we:
- Continue to become indifferent to the people in the real world
- Grow more attached to following we have on social media
- Search for validation and recognition from strangers
- Neglect people in our real lives
- Lose that connection with the people in our day to day lives
- Start to depend on the virtual world more and more